Cathy embraces our new "pet" who graces our site for Halloween Park After Dark, Pocahontas State Park’s fall festival, falls only 8 days before the start of Cabin Work Week. So, while we continued to get ready for Cabin Work Week, we spent several days helping with Park After Dark preparations as fall finally arrived in central Virginia.
Flyers for the local elementary schools Park After Dark
Park after Dark is a big event for the park, attracting families for hay rides, Trunk R Treat, s’mores, face painting and lots more. More than 2000 people attended last year. It’s not a fundraiser, but a community event. To promote it, in addition to the posts on social media, we distribute flyers to the nearby elementary schools. As in past years, 6000 flyers were ordered. We contacted 8 nearby schools to get their requirements for class sizes and how the packs of flyers should be broken down. Typically, they are in numbers of 20 to 35. The goal is to deliver them in time for the schools to pass them out one week in advance. To speed the re-packaging, we were told the flyers would be delivered separated in groups of 25. That would make the process much simpler.
However, due to communications difficulties, the flyers didn’t arrive in the park until Thursday afternoon of the week they were supposed to be delivered to the school. For most schools, that meant we would be delayed a week in getting them out. But they would still get out before the festival. Not too bad.
When we opened the box mid-afternon on Thursday, we were surprised to see the packages shrink-wrapped into 25’s. That was great for a school that wanted 25 per pack, but what about the school that wanted 38 packs of 30 or 20 packs of 20. Cathy scrambled to break open the shrink wrap and re-assemble the packages as required as Dave drove from school to school and delivered the packages. With our late start on Thursday, we only made 6 of the 8 schools. Friday morning we delivered the last 2 and reported back to the park with the remaining flyers.
However, Owen from the Friends group happened to meet us at the Park Office and was concerned about the schools we didn’t get to. After a bit of discussion, he decided to order 3000 more from a local printer for the 3 schools remaining, one of which needed 50 packs of 25. When Owen told us the printer was going to separate them by 100’s, we realized we had a ton of work on our hands, counting out packs of 20, 25 and 30. This was going to take most of the day. On Monday morning, we stopped by the printer early to pick up the flyers and get started. But we found that they hadn’t started the order yet, but were perfectly willing to separate them into the quantities each school required. To our delight, we arrived to pick them up a couple of hours later with them packaged by school with separators in the quantity needed for each school. What would have taken all day took only about an hour. But now, with all of these flyers out in circulation, the likelihood that the attendance would increase dramatically was pretty great.
Park after Dark is a big event for the park, attracting families for hay rides, Trunk R Treat, s’mores, face painting and lots more. More than 2000 people attended last year. It’s not a fundraiser, but a community event. To promote it, in addition to the posts on social media, we distribute flyers to the nearby elementary schools. As in past years, 6000 flyers were ordered. We contacted 8 nearby schools to get their requirements for class sizes and how the packs of flyers should be broken down. Typically, they are in numbers of 20 to 35. The goal is to deliver them in time for the schools to pass them out one week in advance. To speed the re-packaging, we were told the flyers would be delivered separated in groups of 25. That would make the process much simpler.
However, due to communications difficulties, the flyers didn’t arrive in the park until Thursday afternoon of the week they were supposed to be delivered to the school. For most schools, that meant we would be delayed a week in getting them out. But they would still get out before the festival. Not too bad.
When we opened the box mid-afternon on Thursday, we were surprised to see the packages shrink-wrapped into 25’s. That was great for a school that wanted 25 per pack, but what about the school that wanted 38 packs of 30 or 20 packs of 20. Cathy scrambled to break open the shrink wrap and re-assemble the packages as required as Dave drove from school to school and delivered the packages. With our late start on Thursday, we only made 6 of the 8 schools. Friday morning we delivered the last 2 and reported back to the park with the remaining flyers.
However, Owen from the Friends group happened to meet us at the Park Office and was concerned about the schools we didn’t get to. After a bit of discussion, he decided to order 3000 more from a local printer for the 3 schools remaining, one of which needed 50 packs of 25. When Owen told us the printer was going to separate them by 100’s, we realized we had a ton of work on our hands, counting out packs of 20, 25 and 30. This was going to take most of the day. On Monday morning, we stopped by the printer early to pick up the flyers and get started. But we found that they hadn’t started the order yet, but were perfectly willing to separate them into the quantities each school required. To our delight, we arrived to pick them up a couple of hours later with them packaged by school with separators in the quantity needed for each school. What would have taken all day took only about an hour. But now, with all of these flyers out in circulation, the likelihood that the attendance would increase dramatically was pretty great.
Uncle Adam with Troy and Taylor in costume at Park after Dark Our responsibility last year during the event was driving the tractor for the hayride. This year, we were just going to be backup drivers, giving the main driver a break when needed. To do that, we needed a refresher on the tractors. We met on a cold Friday morning the day before the festival to run through our paces. After finishing up, we met back at maintenance to help Dick from the Friends group fix one of the warning lights on the tractor. What we thought might be just a bad bulb led to a 5 hour job to re-wire the light and re-mount it to the tractor frame. One of the fuses actually melted in the process. The good news was that the lights worked great when we were finished.
Taylor with her spider face painting By Saturday night, all was working well. Adam and Droz’s girlfriend Trinity headed up the face painting team. Droz kept order at the Bounce House and recruited floaters for stations needing a break. Dave relieved the tractor drivers (no accidents this year), and Cathy handed out over 1000 bags and glow bracelets. Bonnie and the kids made the rounds of the activities. The rain from the tropical storm held off and, as expected, attendance grew to 2700. Wow! Another great year for the festival.
Dave re-wiring golf cart That’s Our Ride
With 2 park hosts for the month of October, the regular golf cart was already being used. We were given permission to use the golf cart typically reserved for the park shuttle. This cart had some long-deferred maintenance required, which Dave set out to remedy. The first problem was the wiring for the headlight, which had been replaced over the summer. However, the wire had been run over the hood and attached to the hood by electrical tape. Dave’s first project was to route this inside the dash. Next he started diagnosing the tail and signal lights, none of which worked. He was quickly able to power up the tail lights, so that they came on with the headlight. In the process, he managed to get the lighted switch that powered them to light up by simply attaching the ground wire.
However, the turn signals required a new switch. Also, the required flashing yellow light for a slow-moving vehicle was missing and there was no rear view mirror. These would require some purchases.
With 2 park hosts for the month of October, the regular golf cart was already being used. We were given permission to use the golf cart typically reserved for the park shuttle. This cart had some long-deferred maintenance required, which Dave set out to remedy. The first problem was the wiring for the headlight, which had been replaced over the summer. However, the wire had been run over the hood and attached to the hood by electrical tape. Dave’s first project was to route this inside the dash. Next he started diagnosing the tail and signal lights, none of which worked. He was quickly able to power up the tail lights, so that they came on with the headlight. In the process, he managed to get the lighted switch that powered them to light up by simply attaching the ground wire.
However, the turn signals required a new switch. Also, the required flashing yellow light for a slow-moving vehicle was missing and there was no rear view mirror. These would require some purchases.
The first item to arrive was the switch for the turn signals. Once installed, it now displayed a lighted arrow to show which signal was engaged. No more hand signals for making turns. Once the yellow warning light arrived, he mounted it to the roof and, using some split conduit, ran the wires down the frame to the ignition switch. The light would now go on and off when the key was turned – as it is required to.
Finally, the rear view mirror arrived. It was a generic rear view mirror that would need to have a custom bracket made. Working with Ed in Maintenance, he found an L bracket that could be modified to work. Ed cut it to fit, drilled holes to align with the frame and smoothed the rough edges. Once painted, Dave was able to mount it to the frame and the mirror to the bracket. Now, driving the slow-moving cart down the road, we could see traffic approaching from behind and get out of the way.
Finally, the rear view mirror arrived. It was a generic rear view mirror that would need to have a custom bracket made. Working with Ed in Maintenance, he found an L bracket that could be modified to work. Ed cut it to fit, drilled holes to align with the frame and smoothed the rough edges. Once painted, Dave was able to mount it to the frame and the mirror to the bracket. Now, driving the slow-moving cart down the road, we could see traffic approaching from behind and get out of the way.
Wanda prepares for duty at Park after Dark in her spiffed-up shuttle All the changes were greatly appreciated by Wanda, who normally drives the shuttle for concerts. When she arrived at Park after Dark, she shouted in delight to see she had a rear-view mirror and working lights.
Appamattuck Cabins More Host stuff
As you can tell, our host duties have us doing lots of different tasks. We continue to scrape and paint the cabins to get a jump on Cabin Work Week, although the other park host Joe is making the more steady progress. We focused our efforts on the lodge where the team will gather to eat lunches. By power-washing and staining the deck, this work would be out of the way when the building would be most heavily used.
As you can tell, our host duties have us doing lots of different tasks. We continue to scrape and paint the cabins to get a jump on Cabin Work Week, although the other park host Joe is making the more steady progress. We focused our efforts on the lodge where the team will gather to eat lunches. By power-washing and staining the deck, this work would be out of the way when the building would be most heavily used.
One Saturday afternoon, we were asked to pinch-hit for an event happening that evening. The Crimesolvers 5K “Light the Night” run needed some extra hands. We found ourselves positioned at the half-way point 1.5 miles into the woods, handing out cups of water and encouraging the runners on their way. On a Friday afternoon, Dave labeled and positioned buckets at the various firewood kiosks to allow campers to “measure” their wood purchases in time for the weekend “rush”.
One day, during a meeting with Hali, the volunteer coordinator, we found the Park Host sign we had made a couple of years ago. It was in sad shape, so it wasn’t being used any more. Cathy took it and replaced the letters, re-painted the whole sign and then applied several coats of polyurethane to make it better able to handle the elements. Since our sign was showing similar signs of age, she made the same upgrades to it as well. The results look good and will hopefully last much longer.
Grandpa and Taylor in the hammock Downtime
We took time out from host duties to get together with friends for dinner, which included Steve and Linda as they passed through, former volunteer coordinator Andi and her husband Max, and our fellow hosts in the campground. On one of these occasions, we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Cathy’s birthday.
We took time out from host duties to get together with friends for dinner, which included Steve and Linda as they passed through, former volunteer coordinator Andi and her husband Max, and our fellow hosts in the campground. On one of these occasions, we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Cathy’s birthday.
Grandma and Taylor And then on Park After Dark weekend, Bonnie and Troy and the kids camped in the park. We enjoyed spending a beautiful fall day with them and enjoying some dutch oven cooking before we headed off to work the event. It was a great time.
